Roadrunners Bounce Back To Win Series With Blue Mountain
Roadrunner Baseball caps off another successful weekend against two opponents. LBCC started off by facing the Yakima Valley Yaks (5-8 overall) and won their bout in a shutout, 7-0. The Roadrunners went on to face the Blue Mountain Timberwolves (5-4 overall), who field a very talented team. They faced the Roadrunners first on March 9 and won the first contest on the road, 9-6. LBCC proceeded to fire back and make up for the loss, sweeping the team on Sunday.
Against Yakima Valley, LBCC played stellar defense, not allowing them to score a single run all game. Pitcher Brock Townsend nabbed eight total strikeouts against the Yaks. On offense, Jacob Melton had two runs on three hits.
Melton currently is second overall in the conference for batting average at .516. The top 5 NWAC batting averages are shared by him and freshman teammate Logan Hanson, who holds a .458 average. Hanson has been a huge help for the Roadrunners great start and is one part of a stacked group of freshman.
“I’ve just been trying to give it my all on offense. When we’re in a clutch situation, I just wanna put a ball in play and put that pressure on the defense to make a play,” said Hanson.
Against Blue Mountain, LBCC won the series 2-1, but Blue Mountain had all the momentum heading into the sunday games. Blue Mountain’s Dylan Grogan and his seven strikeouts helped propel the Timberwolves for a 9-6 win, handing the Roadrunners their first loss of the season. The next day, LBCC kicked off the double header by beating the Timberwolves in a close one, 7-6. The pitchers for LBCC had 12 total strikeouts and outscored Blue Mountain in the 9th inning 2-1 to ice the contest. Later that day, the Roadrunners harnessed their momentum and won a defensive battle, 3-2, securing the series win and improving to 7-1 on the season.
LBCC now stands at second in the south division, behind the Chemeketa Storm who are at 5-0-1. Chemeketa will be the Roadrunners next opponent in a one-game series on the road. Road games against undefeated teams are no joke, but the formula for success is what the team focuses on in the upcoming days.
“We need to stay with our teammates and love one another. Pick each other up when we fail and congratulate one another when we succeed. Doing these things will put us in a good spot for success in our next game,” said Hanson
Chemeketa has had a handful of games cancelled this season, which would explain the lower record. Despite this, Chemeketa has won convincingly in each of their contests. They recently faced the Walla Walla Warriors and swept them in dominant fashion much like LBCC did, with final scores of 12-7, and 16-4. They most recently played the Montana State Billings and tied the game with them 5-5. Their Shortstop, Connor Fajardo, leads the league in batting average at 529, but has only played in five games, which is 183rd overall at his position. The match-up on Mar. 12 will be a highlighted contest between two teams that size up very well against each other.
Story By Cam Hanson
